Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 453: Reward
Li Qiutang is a qualified director, but definitely not a qualified boss. He has been busy with the film "Mojin: The Lost Legend" for more than a year and has basically neglected Lantern Entertainment.

Thankfully, nothing went wrong at the company.

The Hunger Games series, which has been laying golden eggs, is coming to an end. The first part of the third film has already been released and is performing very well. The company has already advanced some funds, and post-production on the second part is underway.

Perhaps it was truly divine intervention, or perhaps Michael Lynn was some kind of chosen manager, but after the Hunger Games flopped, he went on to make The Maze Runner, the first of which, with a budget of $3.4 million, grossed a staggering $3400 million worldwide.

The second installment wrapped filming the day before yesterday and will be released this year.

With a budget of $20 million and a global box office of over $100 million, Michael Lynn did not hesitate to start preparations for the sequel, approving a budget of $40 million.

It has to be said that Michael Lynn knows how to make money and how to spend it. He hasn't even received his share of the box office revenue yet, and all the funds for these sequels are advanced by the company. Li Qiutang has a cheat code that the sequels will be successful, but Michael Lynn doesn't. Yet he dares to do it. This seventy-year-old man is very bold.

Or has he fallen into the same old trap he had during his time with New Line Cinema, wanting to expand too much and gamble as soon as the company starts to do well?

The answer should be the latter, because Michael Lynn wants to make a blockbuster.

After Legendary Pictures' contract with Warner Bros. expired, it switched allegiance to Universal Pictures. Universal reciprocated by teaming up with Legendary to reboot Jurassic Park, leaving Lantern Entertainment without a chance to profit.

Michael Lynn wanted to make his own blockbuster.

He was drawn to Luc Besson's "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets".

This film is adapted from the French comic book series "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," for which Luc Besson has held the rights for nearly 10 years.

As a strategic partner of EuropaCorp, Luc Besson had approached Fall Out with the project, hoping for investment. After all, Fall Out had made money on "Lucy" and "District B13," and he thought Fall Out would support him in making "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets." However, Fall Out rejected the project.

Autumn Pictures is shrewd. They can invest overseas, and they'll only do films with budgets under $5000 million, because the risk is too high.

That's how cooperation works. Just because I made money off you doesn't mean anything. You should still refuse when necessary.

Thus began Luc Besson's global "begging" journey.

Doesn't Luc Besson know that Lantern Entertainment is also owned by Li Qiutang?

According to the budget submitted by Luc Besson to Michael Lynn, "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" had a budget of $2 million, and Luc Besson hoped that Lantern Entertainment could provide no less than $3000 million in cost support and participate in the film's subsequent distribution in North America.

Upon learning of this, Li Qiutang immediately called off the collaboration.

If I remember correctly, "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" had a budget of $2 million but its global box office didn't even reach $3 million. There's no way he'd take over such a money-losing film.

Li Qiutang terminated the collaboration, arguing that while the company currently doesn't have any blockbusters, it doesn't lack films and there's no need to risk making one.

This was the first time Li Qiutang had rejected Michael Lynn's proposal, which naturally drew strong dissatisfaction from the old man.

He still maintains that Lantern Entertainment must produce blockbusters in order to become a major production company.

But Li Qiutang felt that the company already had its own blockbuster, wasn't the Hunger Games series one?

The Hunger Games series is coming to an end, but the company is actively developing other series to take over, so there is no need to make a blockbuster.

The Purge, John Wick, and The Maze Runner have all been made into series, isn't that enough?

There's also "Now You See Me," which we bought from abroad, and they're now making a second movie.

It's fair to say that if Lionsgate is number one among Hollywood independent studios, Lantern Entertainment would be number two, and could potentially dethrone Lionsgate at any time. However, Michael Lane believes that producing low-budget films is unambitious; the company should focus on big-budget productions, and at the very least, create another franchise like *The Hunger Games*.

Even if low-budget films like "The Purge," "John Wick," and "The Maze Runner" were made into series, it would be difficult to create the same IP effect as "King Kong" or "Godzilla."

However, Li Qiutang still refused to invest in "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," criticizing Luc Besson for not being James Cameron and lacking the ability to manage such a large project.

"His understanding of action and technique did not support him in making a great work like Avatar."

"Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" is clearly following in the footsteps of "Avatar".

"There's no room for negotiation on this. You can find another project to work on. I won't approve 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'." Li Qiutang displayed an unusual arrogance.

If it were only a few million or ten million, Li Qiutang would have turned a blind eye and let it go, considering it as using the money to give Michael Lynn peace of mind. But "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" lost hundreds of millions, with 3000 million dollars and distribution resources invested, and not a single result was heard.

Seeing his boss's strong stance, Michael Lynn had no choice but to abandon his investment plans for "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets".

Li Qiutang didn't come to the United States specifically to argue with Michael Lynn; she came to prepare for the company's IPO.

Lantern Entertainment's performance is so impressive that countless people would want it to go public in a capital market like the United States.

Nasdaq has low listing requirements, and Lantern Entertainment certainly meets the criteria, but Li Qiutang still won't easily go public to raise money.

He needs to complete one task before the company goes public: reforming the dual-class share structure to ensure his leadership within the company.

I never thought this far ahead when I was running a business, but now that I want to go public, I naturally have to do this job well.

As of now, Li Qiutang personally holds 28.46% of the shares in Lantern Entertainment, and through several of his companies, he controls nearly 40% of the shares. Company executives hold nearly 17% of the shares, with CEO Michael Lynn holding 5.78%. Li Qiutang is the largest shareholder of Lantern Entertainment.

Li Qiutang plans to spend millions of dollars to hire a professional financial and legal team to sort out the company's equity structure.

This is also one of the reasons why Michael Lynn is trying to make blockbusters; the company is going public, and he needs to drop a bombshell to show the market his strength.

Of course, it's not impossible to get box office success without blockbusters; prizes are also an option.

Lantern Entertainment had never won a prize before, nor had they considered trying to win one.

But I have some ideas this year.

Moreover, Li Qiutang and Michael Lane are very pragmatic. If they want to win awards and create hype, they could easily make a film specifically made for the awards!

I'll film whatever the judges like.

That's exactly what "The Artist" does.

There are two paths to winning awards. One is to film marginalized characters, mainly patients, madmen, and psychopaths, which can win acting awards. The other is to film niche subjects, such as black and white films, musicals, and mockuments. The more obscure and difficult to understand, the better. Ideally, it should evoke nostalgic memories for the old men who judge the Oscars.

"The Artist" is one such example, as is "Birdman," which caters to the old men's nostalgia for the old film studios.

A blacklist of screenplays is a good option, but good films are always hard to come by and can only be found slowly.

(End of this chapter)